There are grim challenges ahead for America, for the worst of the fight for liberty is far from over. As Winston Churchill warned in his 1942 Second Battle of El Alamein speech, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Instead of building Jesus’ ekklesia , as called for in Matthew 16:18, during the 20 th century American Christianity devoted itself fully to cobbling together a model all its own - a Sunday-best social gathering complete with rock stars, celebrities, big buildings, CEOs, Christian radio, television, and publishing, and other feel-good messages.
As a consequence, secularists have seized control of the spiritual, intellectual, educational, economical, and vocational levers of power and influence in America. What's now happening is spiritual, as American propagandists wrap lawlessness in American cities in plain brown paper, proving every bit as deceitful and politically motivated as were Russian newspapers Pravda [“ Truth ”] and Izvestiya [“News”] in whitewashing the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Certain patterns can be observed throughout history. Vying for ideological supremacy and control of resources, like for instance Marxists fronts such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter do, is nothing new. What ultimately will be in the crosshairs is religion .
Fulton J. Sheen [1895-1979] was an American Roman Catholic bishop [later archbishop] known as both a “ master preacher ” and a radio/TV personality, famed for his motivational quotes. Father Sheen’s Life Is Worth Living prime-time television program “ drew more than 10 million viewers a week, becoming the most widely viewed religious series in television history. The priest won the 1952 Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality [beating out, among others, Lucille Ball and Edward R. Murrow]. A poll of radio and television editors named Bishop Sheen TV's Man of the Year. ” 1
By April 1952, Father Sheen appeared on the cover of Time and visited President Dwight Eisenhower in the Oval Office. Years earlier, in 1937, Father Sheen had exhibited his discernment and ability to see things before they occur. In March of that year he warned of a possible alliance between the two devils of Nazism and Communism, “ the brown one and the red one, ” which were in the process of deciding whether they could “ find common ground in their joint hatred of good and God. ”
With that as background, it is no surprise that Antifa and Black Lives Matter wholeheartedly embrace identity politics in the form of transgenderism, homosexuality, abortion, elimination of the nuclear family, and elevation of victimhood, in addition to a supplementary diversity of iniquities and depravities. Since both organizations are unable to sell their ideas through free speech and honest elections, their insurgency requires an overlay of censorship, intimidation, threats, coercion, violence, and terror. 2
No watchful observer will deem Antifa or Black Lives Matter to be a reflection of the spirit of Christ. Instead, both resemble the slithering venomous serpent.
If culture is the public manifestation of a nation’s religion, as Joseph Boot argues, then militant secularism manifests bestial nihilism, with lying, murder, burning, looting, destruction of property and historical relics as inherent to its very nature.
American Christendom has only itself to thank for this. Christians shied away from the biblical responsibility to be the Salt and Light in society. By abandoning the marketplace, American Christianity turned civil government - the making, enforcement, and adjudication of laws - over to Satan and his secular henchmen. 3
The Founders understood that virtue and liberty are inseparably linked, and that liberty cannot long be maintained in the absence of a Biblically virtuous people and their high-principled representatives.
Unless the current crisis serves as a wakeup call to the Church in America, resulting in a complete overhaul of secularized public inculcation, electing another politician with an R behind his name won’t make much difference, since the upper tributaries of culture deeply impact downstream politics.
Over the last three generations America’s youth has been duped, discipled, proselytized, persuaded and indoctrinated by public education bureaucrats in the paltry splendor of secularism. “ Man is innately good, ” they declare, guns are to blame for killing, unintended pregnancies are due to failed contraception [instead of human behavior], looting, burning American cities and mob rule are President Trump’s fault. Deception and deceit are the order of the day in contemporary America.
To state once again the obvious: less than half of Evangelical and Pro-Life Catholic Christians would describe President Donald J. Trump as “ godly ” or “ moral, ” implying that his strength with Christians does not come from displaying saintly behavior, but from their view of Trump as a fortification against a culture that they feel is increasingly hostile to them and their values.
Which brings us to Joshua Chapter 9, and the deception of the Gibeonites, as described by Arthur W. Pink: “That which is recorded in Joshua 9:1 and 2 should be of real practical value unto those who are engaged in fighting the good fight of faith.” The Gibeonite deception with the stale bread and worn out shoes “illustrates the dual character in which Satan opposes the people of God and the methods he employs therein - as the roaring lion seeking to devour, as the subtle serpent using deceit.” 4
Joshua 9:9 recounts the indictment against God’s people: “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord …” For this reason we call for prayer, fasting, and repentance for our nation and leaders next Sunday, July 12, 2020, and to identify what’s going on in America.
Which brings us to the matter of COVID-19. While mainstream media reports of increased “ cases ” are omnipresent, the 90% decline in nationwide Coronavirus death rates remains unreported. The moment the pagan oligarch Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, announced that parishioners had to stop singing during church services, it became perfectly clear that something more noxious and destructive than influenza is in the air.
Evangelical and Pro-Life Catholic Christians experienced a great victory on November 8, 2016. Much prayer and work went into engaging the enemy, and we narrowly escaped the disaster that would have been upon us with a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency.
However, from that moment on the constitutionally elected president didn’t get much of a honeymoon period as Russian collusion, impeachment, Ukraine, COVID-19, and now street revolution all seem designed to unseat him on Election Day, 2020.
Returning the American government to its rightful owners - We The People - will undoubtedly be the hardest part, for the simple reason that Satan does not readily admit defeat.
Come Election Day we will know whether American Christendom will have gotten the message, with anarchy and insubordination raging in the streets. Sincere repentance always goes together with change of conduct. One of the unmistakable signs will be the status of social engineering and secular public inculcation among Christian youth this fall.
We call for prayer, fasting, and repentance for our nation and leaders next Sunday, July 12, 2020.
Thanks be to God that Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand in the public square.
David Lane
American Renewal Project
1. Paul Kengor, A Pope and A President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century; 2017.
2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=43afP9zPqS4
3. Archie P. Jones, Foreword to Benjamin F. Morris’ The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States; 1864.
4. Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings In Joshua; 1945. www.gracegems.org/Pink/gleanings_in_joshua.htm